


and her mouth on a valentine

by mazily



Category: The Worst Witch (TV 2017), The Worst Witch - All Media Types
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-07
Updated: 2017-10-07
Packaged: 2019-01-10 04:44:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12291510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mazily/pseuds/mazily
Summary: It's entirely Mildred Hubble's fault.





	and her mouth on a valentine

**Author's Note:**

  * For [windinthetrees](https://archiveofourown.org/users/windinthetrees/gifts).



> Thanks to Luna for kicking my tenses. Title from Edna St. Vincent Millay.

It's entirely Mildred Hubble's fault. All of it: from beginning to end and the bits in between.

*

Hecate is not herself. Frustratingly literally at the moment: she is Pippa Pentangle, or, rather, trapped in Pippa's body. In Pippa's clothes. She can't stop pulling at the pink fabric, fingers twitching with the urge to cast something. Her magic feels wrong beneath this skin. Unsettled. She suspects that any spell she attempts will look more like one of Hubble's disasters than proper magic.

"I didn't mean," Mildred says. She looks at Hecate--looks at Hecate in Pippa's body,blonde and pink and cheeks flushing red with anger--and glances away guiltily. "I'm sorry," she says, fumbling with her spell book, "I'm sure I can find the reversal spell, just let me-"

Maud rushes to Mildred's side. Peers into her cauldron. Enid is stood off to Mildred's side, trying to surreptitiously wipe some of the splattered potion from the table.

Hecate lifts her hand, drops it the moment she recognizes the wrong fingers. "Do  _ not _  touch that," she says, instead of stopping Enid with a simple wave of her arm. "Just step back. All of you."

Amazingly, they do. The buzzing in the room goes suddenly silent.

Hecate forces herself to stand still. To not pluck at her dress or throw her hat across the room. "Right," she says, "You three, stay and clean this mess. Everyone else, class dismissed."

Edith lingers at the door as the rest of the class rushes out. Smirking and toying with her uniform, obviously waiting to see what punishment befalls her classmates. Hecate gives her a look. Edith startles, starts to move, at the moment Ada and Pippa--Pippa in Hecate's body, in her clothes; the body Hecate's in goes hot and prickly all over--appear in the room.

"Oh," Pippa says.

The children start gossipping again, and Hecate can feel the magic building up beneath her fingers. Practically daring her to curse them all. She can't stop staring at Pippa, at Pippa staring at her, and her vision starts to go black at the edges.

"Right then," Ada says. And she transports them both to her office. Follows a moment or two later, Mildred and her cat with her.

*

"Lemon drop," Ada says. She hands one to Hecate and another to Pippa, watches until they dutifully put them in their mouths. Smiles and nods at them as if they're students. As if they're children. "Now, now," she says, "I'm not treating you like students. It's just you've both had a rather large shock, and sugar truly is the best medicine at a time like this."

"Miss Cackle," Mildred says.

"Yes, Mildred."

"I didn't mean to. That is," she says, "Tabby knocked something into my cauldron, and then it just bubbled over and exploded and then Miss Pentangle, or Miss Hardbroom, I'm not quite--"

"Thank you, dear," Ada says.

"--sure," Mildred mutters.

Hecate fumes. "Thank you, dear," she repeats. "Thank you, dear? Mildred Hubble just confessed to, to--"

"A spot of bad luck with Tabby," Pippa says. She waves her fingers--Hecate's fingers, and she makes a note to touch up the polish on her left hand once she's back in her proper body--at the cat, who practically runs over so Pippa can scritch him behind his ears. It's disturbing. Unnatural. "Oh, aren't you a sweetheart?" she--she coos, there's no other word for it, and Hecate feels physically ill at that tone coming from her mouth. In her voice.

"She broke the witches code," Hecate spits. "Rule 13, paragraph 4, no witch shall--"

Ada laughs. She  _ laughs _ . Hecate sputters, swallowing the rest of her recitation. Ada turns to Mildred and thanks her again for explaining what happened, sends her back to her next class. She hands Mildred a slip of spelled paper, says, "Give this to Miss Bat, and she'll excuse your tardiness this one time."

Pippa passes Tabby back over to Mildred, who is at least intelligent enough to make her exit as quickly as possible.

As soon as the door closes behind her, Pippa places her hand on Hecate's forearm. "Come on, then," she says, leading them back toward the chairs now sat in front of Ada's desk. Hecate hates herself for how quickly she calms. How docily she follows.

*

Three hours later they admit defeat. Ada transports them directly to Hecate's rooms, reminds them once more not to use any magic until they're sure it won't backfire spectacularly. She wishes them a peaceful night's sleep with an infuriating twinkle in her eye just as they disappear from her office.

"Sometimes sleep, or the passage of time, is all a spell needs to wear off," Pippa offers. Which is true, of course, but Hecate bristles at the calmness of Pippa's tone. The lack of anger in  _ her own voice _ .

"For some reason I doubt we'll be that lucky," Hecate counters. "Nothing is ever quite that simple where Mildred Hubble is involved."

Pippa shrugs. They admitted defeat far too quickly, to Hecate's mind: three hours spent hunched over books in Ada's office barely got them through basic spellcraft, let alone into anything more esoteric. But Pippa yawns, wider than Hecate realized her mouth could open, and Hecate feels exhaustion tensing its way across Pippa's shoulders.

The bed in Hecate's quarters is smaller than it seemed before tonight; before she looked at it with the knowledge she would be sharing it with Pippa, it always seemed overlarge. Decadent. Tonight it seems almost tiny. Cramped. Hecate wants to offer to sleep on the floor, but doesn't want to cause Pippa's body any pain should Pippa's ridiculous suggestion that this will wear off overnight prove true.

"Right then," Pippa says. She moves to magic off Hecate's dress, stops mid-flick of her fingers. She laughs: her own laugh in Hecate's voice, off-key and confusing and swooping through Hecate's stomach. She reaches behind her, trying to work out how to remove Hecate's dress. "I'm afraid I'll need your assistance to remove this, Hiccup," she says.

Hecate feels almost like she's under a full body bind. "Of," she says, "Of course. Yes."

*

Morning arrives, and Hecate opens her eyes to the sight of her own body still asleep next to her on the bed. Her hair in tangles--she should've asked Pippa to braid it, offered to braid it for her--and cheeks almost pink in the warmth of shared body heat.

She feels flushed herself.

Pippa stretches her arms over her head, moans as she shifts awake. Her legs move under the duvet, knees bending and straightening as she twists and turns. Hecate can't look away. Can't move. Can't close her eyes, can't blink, can't quite manage to breathe. And then Pippa turns her head and opens her eyes. Looks at Hecate. Hecate looks back. She isn't sure how long they lie there, watching each other across the too small expanse of Hecate's bed, when Ada pops into Hecate's quarters with a bright and cheery, "Good morning!"

Hecate sits up automatically. Feet over the side of the bed. She stands and turns to face Ada, wishing every so slightly that she could summon a robe in the sudden chill of her rooms. "Good morning," she repeats.

Pippa adds her own morning salutations, but remains seated on the bed with the duvet pooled around her waist and legs. She wraps her arms around herself. Hecate doesn't understand how she manages to make Hecate's body look almost fragile. Like someone Hecate feels an urge to protect.

"I've sent word to your deputy," Ada says. "Who tells me you will understand if I tell you that  _ the bats fly east for the summer _ ."

Pippa nods. "And if you could tell her  _ but cats stay north for the winter  _ in return," she says, "I would be most grateful."

"Of course," Ada says. She turnsher attention more fully on Hecate, watching her like she's worried Hecate might do something foolish. "And I've arranged for a supply witch for your classes until this is all sorted."

Ada sends a stack of books to Hecate's desk; a breakfast tray appears on Hecate's table. Pippa finally gets out of bed, answering the siren's call of tea, dragging Hecate's duvet behind her like a cloak.

"And with that, I will leave you two to your day," Ada says. She disappears. Hecate's stomach growls, and Pippa blushes a pink Hecate never imagined could stain her own cheeks. She wonders if it's something innate to Pippa: pink and perfect as always.

"I," Pippa begins. "With everything that happened, I may have forgotten to eat anything past breakfast yesterday. I'd recommend starting with something sweet—sugar does seem to cure most ills, does it not?" She finishes dropping yet another sugar cube into her tea. Takes a sip and winces. "Er, I rather think this one's for you," she says, and passes the cup into Hecate's open hands.

*

They study sat across from one another at Hecate's small table, scribbling notes and passing books like they're back at school. Pippa passes Hecate small snacks throughout the day: sweet candies and doughnuts and something flaky and probably French. In her own body, Hecate would feel sick, lethargic, eating so much sugar, but in Pippa's she feels light and energetic and like her very skin is humming.

Pippa makes a sound. Grabs Hecate's arm, leans close so she can share something she's found. Their knees touch. Hecate tries to swallow around her suddenly dry tongue. "Do you think this might—oh, no, never mind," she says.

Her disappointed pout looks alien on Hecate's mouth. Off and wrong, and Hecate wants to break something. Wants to rid Cackle's Academy of Mildred Hubble and everyone she's ever befriended. Hecate reaches out; she needs to touch, to explain somehow. Her finger brushes Pippa's finger on the page, magic buzzing beneath her skin. It feels like--

"Wait," Hecate says. She clasps her fingers around Pippa's. The strange buzzing continues, intensifies until she's sure everyone in the school can hear it. Hecate's palm feels sweaty, itchy with something she can't quite name, and she can't stop herself wondering whether she should let go. Whether she wants far too much to feel Pippa's skin against her own forever.

The buzzing stops. Hecate's magic settles. Feels almost like her own again.

"Do you feel that?" Pippa asks. She reaches out and joins their other hands. It feels like a coven coming together. Like an endless circle, something infinite and unimaginable. Hecate watches Pippa across the book; watches her own mouth stretch into a joyful smile.

She acts without thought. Pippa's lips taste of unsweetened tea and Hecate's own lipstick, and she kisses Hecate back without hesitation. The edge of the table digs into Hecate's side, the shock of pain reminding her this is real, and she closes her eyes against the sudden influx of feeling. Allows herself to relax into the kiss; to open her mouth, to picture Pippa's blonde hair and the quirk of her lips, to--

*

Hecate opens her eyes. Lifts her head from the table, winces at the creak of her neck as she sits up. She looks across the table as Pippa lifts her head: at Pippa's face, her hair, her flushed cheeks and open mouth and shocked expression.

"What did you," Hecate starts.

"I didn't," Pippa says. She shakes her head. Stares at Hecate as Hecate stares back at her.

Pippa magics her ridiculously pink hat appears onto her head and sends it away again with a twitch of her fingers. Her smile is brighter than Hecate can ever remember seeing it; wider, even, than the day they first perfected their broomstick waterskiing routine.

Hecate moves her hand, clears away their breakfast tray with a thought. Her magic feels right. Feels like her, beneath her skin, like every spell she'd ever studied late into the night folding perfectly into place.

She kisses Pippa again. Pulls back, eyes tightly closed. She can't bring herself to look.

"We're still us, Hiccup," Pippa says. She laughs. Leans into Hecate's still-buzzing lips, presses another kiss to Hecate's mouth. One kiss leads into another, Hecate can't stop touching her cheeks, her ears, the back of her head. Pippa's hair is as soft as Hecate's teenaged memories of it. Perfectly suited for Hecate's fingers.

Something cracks, and Hecate magics the rest of the books back to their shelves. She opens her mouth and licks into PIppa's. Pippa moans. Tightens the fingers tangling in Hecate's hair and pulls. Hecate presses even closer. She wonders if it would be appropriate to invite Pippa into her bed, or if she ought to wait. To try to woo her. A traditional courtship. Pippa pulls Hecate's hair again, and Hecate's mind goes white and still.

"Oh! I," Ada says.

Hecate flushes. Half falls over Pippa's arms pulling away.

"I am sorry," Ada continues. "I did announce myself, but it appears you didn't hear." She looks amused and not nearly as apologetic as she ought.

Hecate wants to disappear herself into the woods. To hide there collecting herbs and other potions supplies until no one at Cackle's remembers her name. Pippa sighs. Her lipstick is smeared; Hecate wiggles a finger, fixes it, and Pippa wrinkles her nose at the tickle of the spell.

The room is silent. Hecate's mouth is dry.

"Right," Pippa finally says, a moment or an hour later, "Thank you, Miss Cackle, for your hospitality and assistance. I, and everyone at Pentangle's Academy, will not forget it."

"You're very welcome," Ada says.

They continue the traditional formalities: gratitude, appreciation, the promises of reciprocity. Hecate stands silent through it all. She feels like she's barely keeping herself from spitting into atoms and floating away.

Ada finally takes her leave. Hecate waits for Pippa to follow. To say farewell and return to her perfect life in her beautiful school, far away from Hecate and her irresponsible students and tangled emotions.

Hecate looks at her books, her walls, the chipped nail polish she spotted when this whole disaster began. She tries to focus on her upcoming classes -- an exam for the first years feels particularly warranted -- when Pippa stomps her foot and says, "Look at me, Hiccup, or I swear on everything a witch can swear upon that I will hex you where you stand."

Hecate looks. Eyes snapping to attention.

"You fool," Pippa says. Voice gentle, kind. "You ridiculous, idiotic, stupid thing."

Hecate opens her mouth to answer, but she doesn't know what to say. Pippa shakes her head. Hecate steps forward. Forces herself to repeat the action, to keep moving forward until she's close enough to reach out. To take Pippa's hand in her own; to begin to lead her back toward the bed. Pippa lunges. Pushes Hecate against the wall with a combination of strength and magic that makes Hecate go hot all over.

*

It's entirely Mildred Hibble's fault. Or mostly--

"We should thank her," Pippa says.

"No," Hecate says. She rolls onto her side. Pippa presses against her back, bare skin to bare skin, and pulls Hecate impossibly close. "I rather think not."


End file.
